Chapter 16: The First Watch
Elmo was surprised at how bored he got and how quickly. There wasn't anything for him to do, so he couldn't occupy his mind with anything. Not only that, but he felt like he couldn't stay awake for much longer after the others went to sleep, given the light completely went out. Leaving him not even able to see his hand in front of his face. The dark itself felt like it was trying to soothe him into nodding off.
Although, having the piece of wood in his hand was at least comforting to have, even though he wasn't sure if he'd be able to light it with the dark this deep. While he hadn't been that surprised when he realized the light was dimming, he'd expected it to be as dark as it always showed in the movies at the darkest, which meant there was enough light that you could still see what was going on, even when they indicated that it was completely dark. At least then he'd be able to still have some light he could see with.
He couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he found that he couldn't even see his hand the moment before it touched his face. It definitely was a new experience for him. If he hadn't seen the light dim before it went out completely, as well as the others in his team notcing it was getting dimmer as well, he might have thought that he'd gone blind.
However, while he couldn't see anything now, he found his hearing had increased significantly. He wouldn't have expected to hear much, but in the distance, he could hear the drip of some liquid, maybe water. Though, which direction that sound was coming from, he couldn't be sure. All he knew was that he could hear it.
Time went by slowly. Painfully so. Elmo thought he might have noodded off a few times, but each time he didn't stay asleep for long if he had. He wanted to get up and walk around, but he while he was afraid of accidentally walking over debris, like that from the table, he was more afraid of accidentally stepping on Kim and waking her up.
Finally, he couldn't handle it anymore. After he woke up for the umpteenth time, he carefully made his way over to Jonas by crawling. He wasn't sure he wouldn't accidentally step on Jonas if he walked over.
Jonas didn't take much to wake him up. Elmo had barely started shaking Jonas when he sat up.
"What time is it?" Jonas asked drowsily.
"No idea," Elmo replied. "All I know is that it's just dark."
Jonas sighed. "Not really surprised," Jonas said. "Would be nice to have some light to see with, but-"
Elmo waited to see if Jonas would continue, but when he didn't, Elmo spoke up. "'But' what?" What were you goi-" Elmo started to ask, but stopped when Jonas put a hand on Elmo's mouth.